Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe Ana ought to have never gotten into her truck and come here.
Or maybe they’d been building up to this since… since high school, really. She’d chased him or he’d chased her—or maybe they’d been racing each other to this very destination all along.
Her current destination—or place—was Buddy Whitman’s front step. Or maybe Luke’s front step.
It was probably his front step since his truck was in the driveway. She’d deleted his number, so she couldn’t call and ask if he was here.
She blew out an impatient breath and knocked again, louder this time. If he never opened the door, they’d never find out if they were meant to be. Which would be a damn shame, especially after that speech to her mother.
A chaos of barking dogs erupted on the other side. She sighed. Of course the dogs hadn’t heard her earlier knock but decided to freak out now. Well, if he was home, he was definitely coming after that racket.
The door opened with a hard rattle as the lock came undone. When he saw her standing there, he broke out in a wide, slow grin. As if she were the best possible thing he could find waiting for him on his doorstep.
“Hey.” His voice was husky and amused.
“Hey yourself.” She wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly shy.
He stepped aside. “You coming in?”
“If you’ll have me.”
“You already know the answer to that.”
She stepped inside, looked around. It looked typically bachelorish with some furniture, nothing on the walls, and a massive TV. “It’s nice.”
“It’s okay. I’ve only been here a day.” He closed the door behind her. “Do you want anything to drink? I think I’ve got some Lightning Blue.”
She smiled. “No, I’m good.”
They stared at each other for a long moment. Then he grabbed her face and kissed her. She melted into him at the first touch of his lips on hers. He lifted her, never breaking the kiss, and hauled her to the couch.
They kissed frantically for long moments. Ana slid her hands under his shirt, finding all the hot skin and thick muscles her fingers had been craving. That all of her had been craving.
“Are we ever going to do it in a bed?” she said, low and rumbly, because she wanted to tease, but she also really just wanted him.
“Maybe.” He braced himself above her. “Is that all that you came for?”
“No.”
His expression brightened into delight, as if he’d been waiting to hear that. “I guess this would be a good time to tell you that I quit the resort.”
She gasped and shoved against his chest. “Really? I kind of never thought you would.”
Although he had said something about it the last time they’d met. Only she hadn’t realized he was serious.
Oh God, had he done it for her?
She froze up so hard at the thought, she couldn’t get that question out.
“It was time,” he said, as if it were just that easy. “I’m thinking about taking up consulting instead. That way I can stay in the hotel business and only be a brother and a cousin to my family.”
Okay, so it wasn’t for her. Or it wasn’t only for her. Somehow that made her feel loads better about this. “Good. I think you’ll be great at it.”
And of course that changed things. Changed how she was going to come at this.
Because she wouldn’t be the only one giving something up to have what was between them. Not that working for the federation would be giving anything up.
“I guess this would be a good time to tell you that I might quit my resort,” she said, as casually as he had.
“What? How could you do that?”
“I haven’t quit quite yet.” She twined her fingers in his shirt, tugging the fabric toward her and letting it ride up and expose his abs. “But there’s an opportunity for me to work with the Intertribal Federation. Going all over the state, meeting with other tribes, still helping my people, but helping out other Natives too.”
“When did this happen?”
“Just today.”
“Are you going to do it?” His tone was sharp, as if he either really wanted her to do it… or really didn’t want her to do it.
“Well, I kind of thought I’d talk to you about it first.”
“Ana…” A wicked smile crossed his face. “Are you asking me to be your sidepiece? Because if you’re going all over the state, and I’ll have all this free time as a consultant…”
She laughed. He was… he was funny and never let her rest on her laurels and was a great listener and…
And she loved him. She hadn’t wanted to, she hadn’t meant to, but it had still happened. Funny how these things ended up. Maybe in a few months, once they were further in their relationship, she could confess. If a relationship was what they were heading for. She should probably clarify that at some point.
“I didn’t know you’d quit when I came over here,” she said. “It looks like we had the same idea at the same time.” She twisted her fingers so tightly into his shirt her knuckles went white. “Do you think… Are we heading toward a relationship here?”
“What?” He reared up, tearing his shirt from her grip as he blinked down at her. “How could you ask that? I mean, I love you—”
“Wait.” She held up a hand and tried to catch her breath. What had he said? “You can’t just throw that on a person.”
“You smashed me in the eye with a kettlebell. I think I can throw the word love at you.”
“Are you throwing the word at me or…?”
This was kind of her whole future at stake here—a little clarification would be good. Also, if it was more than the word, she could give her heart permission to go into overdrive like it wanted to.
He cupped her face and brushed his mouth across hers. “No, it’s more than just the word. It’s the real thing. I met you in the middle of the night on a dirt road to make love to you in a truck. How could you doubt my feelings after that?”
That really wasn’t the greatest proof, but coupled with everything else he’d done for her—everything he was, really—that was more than proof enough.
She told her heart it could finally go crazy, then said, “I… I love you too. I thought I hated you, or at least I wanted to beat you at everything, but I think that’s just how we are. We’ll be competitive, yes, but in the end, we’re better people for that competition. We hone each other into our best forms.”
Wow, she was just speechifying all over the place tonight.
“That’s very poetic,” he said with mock solemnity.
“I also like telling you to shape up and stop whining.”
“And I love hearing that from you.”
“Also, you’re a great listener. In that you just listen. You never meddle.”
“Because I know you’re smart and capable enough to solve stuff on your own.”
To hear that he had that much trust in her, that he didn’t have to charge in and try to solve everything… Her mother was right; he was a treasure she shouldn’t lose.
Even so: “This won’t be easy.” Even with love, they had a long way to go to Happily Ever After.
“I know. But we’re not afraid of hard work.”
That was definitely true. “We can’t just move in together,” she said. Not that she even wanted to at this point. Another thing they’d have to work toward.
“As if I’m that kind of floozy,” he teased. Then he sobered. “I’m going to follow your lead on this, darlin’. You tell me when and how you want to invite me into your world. Okay?”
She nodded. She could do that.
“We’ll figure it out,” he said. “Slowly, but we’ll get where we need to be. Look how long it took us to get here from high school.”
“Yeah. It’ll take some more time to get this”—she gestured between them—“dialed in. I can’t just leave the reservation. And you can’t just move out there.”
“I know. How about you come visit me here whenever you want? And we’ll take baby steps toward more. Toward dialing things in.”
That sounded good. She’d still have plenty of time to help Sara with Lori and to spend time with her mom and to do everything else she wanted to do with her life.
As for him… “What will you do when I’m not here?”
“You might not have noticed, but there’s quite a bit of family shit going down right now.” His voice went dark, his brows drawing together. “Josh is avoiding everyone, Fee’s still pissed at me, Benedict… well, he’s Benedict. Oh, and I just got a text from Adriano—he and Lil are on their way to the hospital. It looks like my niece finally decided to show up.”
Why hadn’t he said so right away? “Oh my God, how exciting! Do you need to go too?”
“No, I’ll go visit once the baby’s actually here. I’ll save the hospital waiting room routine for my own kids.” He winked at her.
“Huh. As if your wife wouldn’t want you there so she could tell you in great deal how it was all your fault and you did that to her.” She tried to play it off as sarcasm, but the blush on her cheeks gave her away.
“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”
It was the we that dissolved any last worries she might have. Yes, it would be tough and it would take a lot of figuring out—but that we said that he saw them doing it together. Just as they had the past few months.
“Yeah, we will find out,” she said.
She had no doubt that what they’d find together would be nothing short of pure joy.